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This is what they cite as the key benefits: "A cleaner API that's easier to use, with new developer features like the ability to specify which fields get retur

This is what they cite as the key benefits: "A cleaner API that's easier to use, with new developer features like the ability to specify which fields get returned, or retrieve more Tweets from a conversation within the same response Some of the most requested features that were missing from the API, including conversation threading, poll results in Tweets, pinned Tweets on profiles, spam filtering, and a more powerful stream filtering and search query language " I really doubt this is what developers have been yearning for in a revamped Twitter API. Previous APIs provided plenty of functionality, it's just that too many of us were burned by the ever-shifting policies around API use. I personally went from envisioning Twitter as the social data pipeline of the web to vowing never to touch it again within the span of one year. I can't believe this announcement wouldn't touch on policy and developer relations at all.

bad_user 6y ago
Speak for yourself. Their current API makes third party clients very difficult because they lack features and I hoped they'll announce something like this. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind them touching on the developers relations they want to build, but no company of their size will admit to wrongdoing in the past. Also words aren't worth anything unless they come in a legally binding contract that can't change on a whim.
- Macha 6y ago
  Given the examples of promoted API usage, it doesn't seem to have any backing away from their stance that they don't want third party clients. Add to that their API pricing was as I understand it not feasible for any new client app used by end users which gets any serious amount of usage and needs to move to paid tiers.
- detaro 6y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if you get an API that'd be better for third-party clients at the same time as all requests for API access for third-party clients are denied.
raxxorrax 6y ago
Just out of curiosity: What type of application would have you interace with twitter at all? For ad purposes, some form of analysis? News aggregation?
- dewey 6y ago
  Any Twitter client?
- ilikehurdles 6y ago
  Product support ticket systems use twitter and other social media sites to respond to customer feedback, as well as track and escalate issues. When you tweet complaints about your service at Comcast, there's probably a ticket created that someone from their support staff picks up. I think there's a perception that the quicker responses that these tools facilitate can help prevent negative feedback from going viral and doing broader harm to the company.
  - PeterCorless 6y ago
    Right. And so, for those CRMs it is vital to not just catch the first tweet. Being able to catch a thread is important to catch the rant on the third tweet in a thread that explains the exact problem.
Nav_Panel 6y ago
> conversation threading Actually, this was a major point of API failure when I last tried to use it. Did you know that, with the current API, there's no way to retrieve the replies to a tweet? This makes it impossible to build tools that, say, allow you to visualize a tweet thread, because you simply can't fetch the thread. So I'll say that, as a casual, social, and informational user of Twitter (i.e. not business, not adtech, not academia), this announcement gives me a little hope that we might see a resurgence in 3rd party apps that provide more powerful ways of interfacing with Twitter. At least, that's my hope, maybe I'm naive that they'd really allow this.
- toyg 6y ago
  > there's no way to retrieve the replies to a tweet My crusty old version of Tweetbot has been doing that for years...? Maybe not perfectly for tweets with hundreds of replies, but well enough.
  - Nav_Panel 6y ago
    Any idea how it's done in the API? I know you can retrieve a tweet's parent, but not its children.
    - wyldfire 6y ago
      Step 0: build a tree including all tweets, ... ;)
    - benmanns 6y ago
      Possibly using the HTML API.
      - not_really 6y ago
        The final frontier
    - anaphor 6y ago
      You have to use the search feature to look for tweets and then look at the parent tweet ID. This is what bots like threadreaderapp, etc do. You can construct it from the bottom up if you know the ID of the last tweet in the thread of responses too, but you wouldn't know that a priori unless the user gives it to your software somehow.
kevincox 6y ago
Most importantly none of these items, except maybe threads require a new API. Poll results would just be added to responses, pinned tweets would be a new flag to the search endpoint and a more powerful filtering and search language can just replace the search API. It seems weird that they are tearing it all down and forcing everyone to migrate.
alicemaz 6y ago
if they reintroduce user streams I'll be pleased, if they ease off the per-app user limit I'll be elated. it doesn't really mean anything if they promise such and such policies or initiatives otherwise we'd all be holding our breath for bluesky. what's important is what they actually end up doing, which I guess we'll find out next week
cheesecracker 6y ago
Same here, I just don't trust them enough to build on their API anymore.

bad_user 6y ago

Speak for yourself. Their current API makes third party clients very difficult because they lack features and I hoped they'll announce something like this. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind them touching on the developers relations they want to build, but no company of their size will admit to wrongdoing in the past. Also words aren't worth anything unless they come in a legally binding contract that can't change on a whim.

Macha 6y ago
Given the examples of promoted API usage, it doesn't seem to have any backing away from their stance that they don't want third party clients. Add to that their API pricing was as I understand it not feasible for any new client app used by end users which gets any serious amount of usage and needs to move to paid tiers.
detaro 6y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if you get an API that'd be better for third-party clients at the same time as all requests for API access for third-party clients are denied.

raxxorrax 6y ago

Just out of curiosity: What type of application would have you interace with twitter at all? For ad purposes, some form of analysis? News aggregation?

dewey 6y ago
Any Twitter client?
ilikehurdles 6y ago
Product support ticket systems use twitter and other social media sites to respond to customer feedback, as well as track and escalate issues. When you tweet complaints about your service at Comcast, there's probably a ticket created that someone from their support staff picks up. I think there's a perception that the quicker responses that these tools facilitate can help prevent negative feedback from going viral and doing broader harm to the company.
- PeterCorless 6y ago
  Right. And so, for those CRMs it is vital to not just catch the first tweet. Being able to catch a thread is important to catch the rant on the third tweet in a thread that explains the exact problem.

Nav_Panel 6y ago

> conversation threading Actually, this was a major point of API failure when I last tried to use it. Did you know that, with the current API, there's no way to retrieve the replies to a tweet? This makes it impossible to build tools that, say, allow you to visualize a tweet thread, because you simply can't fetch the thread. So I'll say that, as a casual, social, and informational user of Twitter (i.e. not business, not adtech, not academia), this announcement gives me a little hope that we might see a resurgence in 3rd party apps that provide more powerful ways of interfacing with Twitter. At least, that's my hope, maybe I'm naive that they'd really allow this.

toyg 6y ago
> there's no way to retrieve the replies to a tweet My crusty old version of Tweetbot has been doing that for years...? Maybe not perfectly for tweets with hundreds of replies, but well enough.
- Nav_Panel 6y ago
  Any idea how it's done in the API? I know you can retrieve a tweet's parent, but not its children.
  - wyldfire 6y ago
    Step 0: build a tree including all tweets, ... ;)
  - benmanns 6y ago
    Possibly using the HTML API.
    - not_really 6y ago
      The final frontier
  - anaphor 6y ago
    You have to use the search feature to look for tweets and then look at the parent tweet ID. This is what bots like threadreaderapp, etc do. You can construct it from the bottom up if you know the ID of the last tweet in the thread of responses too, but you wouldn't know that a priori unless the user gives it to your software somehow.

kevincox 6y ago

Most importantly none of these items, except maybe threads require a new API. Poll results would just be added to responses, pinned tweets would be a new flag to the search endpoint and a more powerful filtering and search language can just replace the search API. It seems weird that they are tearing it all down and forcing everyone to migrate.

alicemaz 6y ago

if they reintroduce user streams I'll be pleased, if they ease off the per-app user limit I'll be elated. it doesn't really mean anything if they promise such and such policies or initiatives otherwise we'd all be holding our breath for bluesky. what's important is what they actually end up doing, which I guess we'll find out next week

cheesecracker 6y ago

Same here, I just don't trust them enough to build on their API anymore.